Any idea on how to prevent people from copying your photos?

[estiny72]

Hi all! I don't know about you but as a seller, I am furious with the new regulation from eBay that any text on a photo in a listing will be removed beause it will contravene the new rule to take effect by February 2014. Sadly, I have taken hundreds of photos, spent time taking at least 10 shots per item, choosing the best photo, taken the time to crop it, insert a border to make it nice and finally insert a small text of my userID over the photo to prevent others from copying and using my photo. With the new eBay rule, borders and any text are no longer allowed. Watermarks are allowed but it has to be at a corner without obstructing the photo. I have used eBay's option to watermark my photo with my userID as a teat on one of my listings. Yes, it shows my userID on the left hand corner but when you click to enlarge the photo, the watermark is not there and if someone right clicks on the photo, he/she can copy and save the photo as his or hers. I don't want to spend time going through listings and reporting to eBay when someone has stolen my photograph. I have even come across photos of mine in the past when my text which was previously shown on a corner, "painted" over using photoshop. Best of all, if the photo was stolen from me and used on a USA eBay site for example, I was told there is nothing else eBay could do. That is the reason why I inserted a small text over the photo so that it makes it difficult for people to try to manipulate the photo. Trust me when I said I have seen a person done so before as I could see the blurred colour matching and when I politely told the seller that at least she could ask for my permission, communication ceased immediately. Sorry for the blabbling... so now with the new upcoming eBay regulation, no one in eBay can offer me a solution in protecting my photos other than to tell me to use their watermark option and to report to them if someone did steal my photo. Does anyone out there have a solution that can protect your hard work and abide to the new eBay regulation as well? Thanks very much!

[bigbrickshop]

The picture requirements don't specify that your watermark has to be in a corner but it does have to be small and transparent. Unfortunately it does mean that pics are more likely to be copied. You could try adding a no-right-click script which may prevent some copying.

6. What is the new watermark policy?

Watermarks are allowed for the purpose of establishing picture ownership to protect your intellectual property. Watermarks must meet the following guidelines:

• May not be used for marketing
• May not obscure the image in the photo.
• May only an eBay user ID or company name.
• May not contain specific information about your product or customer service.
• Must be no bigger than 5% of your photo and at a transparency level of no more than 50%

http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/selling-on-ebay/pictures/faqs

[estiny72]

Hi! Thanks for your reply. Interesting... maybe I missed reading the part that it doesn't state where the watermark should be but it also said that text cannot be on the photo of the item itself so I can safely assume it has to be at a corner. I have come across a blog about how to prevent right click and save image but apparently it can also cause all sorts of other issues, including possibly infringing eBay other regulations. If someone knows of a way to safeguard your photos or a forum where we can raise it with eBay that hopefully more sellers can petition for an amendment to the rule or eBay has to do something in their programming to prevent people from copying images. Sigh...

[oz_electronics_inc]

You might take a look at Auctiva.com As they offer image storage options that include watermarking and prevention of right click copy. This however does not prevent people from using screen capture software to copy your image.

In this Internet page is a very difficult to prevent people from copying your intellectual property.

[putney32]

oz electronics is right, if you use Auctiva or Inkfrog (costs about $10 a month), you have all sorts of watermark options and photos cannot be copied from their files.

[estiny72]

Hi all. Thanks for your idea about Auctiva. Many moons ago when I first started selling on eBay and when Auctiva first started, I was using them as they were free, templates were free and you had that free scrolling picture thing. Then my eBay account got hacked into and believe it or not, someone posted a listing to sell a vintage car! LOL Anyway, eBay sorted that out for me and I said how could my account be hacked as I am always so careful logging out of eBay and avoiding public computers. eBay was the one who said it was probably a third party hosting that has put my account at risk, i.e. eBay was pointing the finger at Auctiva. Since then I have stopped using Auctiva and never had my account hacked into (touch wood!). Surprisingly, I received a reply back from eBay today after venting my frustrations to them. They suggested I use a watermark on the centre of my photo to minimise people trying to copy my photos. Hmm... so I can't put a small text of my username in the middle of my photo but I can with a watermark, which essentially is still text except it's kind of blended into the colours of the photo? Baffles me but if that holds true then a watermark in the middle of my photos is better than having it at a corner when it can be simply cropped or "painted" over. I know I am being pedantic about my photos being copied etc. but I am a perfectionist and like my photos to look as near professional as I could so I do spend a lot of time taking multiple shots, selecting the one I want, cropping and making it look nice. What irks me is I never saw this coming so I don't have any clean photos of my older stock and once a text is embedded into the photo, I can't remove it. So back to the drawing board again re taking those photos. Still not happy but at least I have eBay's confirmation I have till February next year to make sure I comply with their new rule. My only glimmer of hope is that they would relax this new rule a little and succumb to some suggestions and feedback from sellers or, bow down to pressure like they did when they tried to force PayPal as the only form of payment method down our throats a few years ago (anyone remember that?). But if anyone has found a way to prevent copying of photos, please let me know. Thanks a million.

[extra-keen]

The whole photograph things seems to be a bit fraught with issues and problems. I started slowly re-photographing all my products about a month ago. Sadly the photo is part of the description and my products sell by colour so I had multiple colours showing with each colour name overlayed over the appropriate spot. Well I can't do that anymore.

Regarding watermarking. I put mine right across the middle.

I don't host my photos online as I do think there are unnecessary risks for folks like me who have no idea beyond my own computer and I struggle with that. =

Oh well it is back to the camera now while I have plenty of natural light to do the job.

[dotcomdotayu]

Just want to jump in here ... Those no-right-click script, however good for their intended purpose, are a pain in the backside from a buyers point of view. If you're like me, you open everything in a new tab. If you've got the right click script in place, it's impossible to do that. I always leave a sellers store if those scripts are in place because it's not enjoyable to browse.

It's just some food for thought.

[knifetradeaustralia]

Host your pics and link to them. When people copy your pic they are essentially copying the link to that pic. If you have been ripped off change the pic on your web that is relative to that link  to whatever you wish and that will be the new pic that appears in the persons ad that stole your pic. 

[phorum_junkie*]

Hosting them makes no difference, all they have to do is copy the pic to their computer and they can use it without the link.